About this quote

Children view the mundane details of daily life with a wild, unfiltered imagination. Adults often forget how to look at a bowl of food or a desk tool and see something completely ridiculous. It pays to inject a little nonsense into your morning routine to break up the gray monotony of chores. When was the last time you let yourself think up a silly lie just to make someone laugh? Keeping a sense of play alive prevents your mind from hardening into strict, boring efficiency.

When to use it

• When your seven-year-old refuses to finish his dry bran flakes at the kitchen table, you can tease him with this line to get a giggle and break the breakfast standoff.
• During a dry brainstorming session for a new toy design, you use this concept to nudge your team to think more like kids and less like serious corporate managers.
• A high school English teacher writes this on the whiteboard before a creative writing workshop to show students how ordinary objects can spark bizarre stories.
• You say this to your roommate when they are staring blankly into their cardboard box of cheap, tasteless generic cereal on a gloomy Monday morning.